Cauda Equina Syndrome Discussion

Thanks for sharing your experience Lara! The most important thing people should learn like you've mentioned is to not let their injuries get the best of them. I haven't myself and I know you haven't. Staying positive is key and it will help you recover quicker both mentally and physically!

Thats another reason I was excited to see a CES forum. When I was first looking for info, I wasn't finding much.
I had a OT that said Wise was her favorite. I forgot about it till month's later then stumbled on CC. I'm glad there is more info out there, it's not a easy thing to explain.

Yeah, I was clueless.  I had just come out of a MRI, had just been cathed for the first time, the I.V. was running and things were getting blurry. You have cauda equina syndrome and we need to operate. He explained it the best he could as they were rolling me away, he might as well sang me the brady bunch song.

I agree. I had atleast 5 docs, and one neuro surgeon missed them. Everyone seemed to be waiting for me to lose strength in my legs which I didn't until the evening when I felt the warm wave of numbness that traveled from my left leg, across groin and into my right leg. What a relief pain wise, but I was paralyzed from the waist down. Bummer...

Your description seems so similar to mine. I have some bladder return, I'm not voiding completely. My bowels work slow, I'm constipated pretty much all the time. I kept logs on everything for along time and finally just quit, no real patterns. My left leg is toast, looks like a pirate's peg leg, my right is deformed a bit.

My toes on my right foot kinda curl under. Have a type of fatique I'd never felt before. Rergular neruo pain and was lucky enough to experience electric shock like episodes as well. I weaned myself off my meds shortly after leaving the hospital, but after about a year I'd had enough of the shocks. I tried many meds all non-narcotic until I settled on Lyrica, and Tramadol. Lyrica takes most of the shocks away.(about 90%) The tramadol seems to numb up my numb legs, that lets me stay upright longer through the day. Of course there is a price to pay for the relief, you kinda have accept the trade-off.

The good news is that I fell into a excellent group of people who have worked with me to keep me upright. I'm on my second pair of AFO's, they rock.
They give me a piviot point under the pad of my right foot, it gives me a decent gait. I still breaking them in, I can only keep then on for 5 or 6hrs. before they sceam to come off. Even though my right leg is my good leg, it's pretty uncomfortable with more feeling.  

You're still fairly new to the 'injury' so I think you've still got lots of time for improvement! Your health issues are definitely similar (when it comes to what's affected) to those who have suffered CES. What exactly is the function of a sacral nerve implant? Has it not helped your bladder function at all? I've got no control of my bowel and bladder as well but if I were to get a function back first, I'd want it to be my bladder.